Breakdown of La nonna dice che una maledizione porta sfortuna solo se ci credi.
portare
to bring
se
if
che
that
credere
to believe
solo
only
ci
in it
la nonna
the grandmother
dire
to say
la maledizione
the curse
la sfortuna
the bad luck
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Questions & Answers about La nonna dice che una maledizione porta sfortuna solo se ci credi.
Why does Italian use the definite article la before nonna, whereas in English we often say “Grandma says” without “the”?
In Italian you normally put a definite article before family member nouns when they’re not directly modified by a possessive. So la nonna literally means “the grandmother,” but functions like English “Grandma.” If you add a possessive, you drop the article: mia nonna = “my grandma.”
Why is it dice che and not dice di or dice a before the clause “una maledizione porta sfortuna…”?
When you report speech or belief in Italian, you use dire che + full clause (just like “say that…” in English). Dire di would require an infinitive instead (e.g. dice di credere = “she tells [someone] to believe”), and dire a takes an indirect object (“she says to him/her”), so only dire che correctly introduces a subordinate clause.
How do I know maledizione is feminine, and why do we use una?
Most Italian nouns ending in -ione are feminine (e.g. situazione, opinione), so you pair them with feminine articles like una. Hence una maledizione = “a curse.”
What does porta sfortuna literally mean, and why isn’t there an article before sfortuna?
Portare means “to bring” or “to carry,” so porta sfortuna means “it brings bad luck.” In idiomatic expressions with abstract nouns like sfortuna (bad luck), Italian often drops the article: you say porta sfortuna, not porta la sfortuna (though the latter isn’t ungrammatical, it’s less common).
What is the ci doing in ci credi, and what does it refer to?
Here ci is a clitic pronoun replacing in essa (“in it”). The verb crederci means “to believe in it.” So solo se ci credi = “only if you believe in it.” Without ci, you’d need to repeat nella maledizione (but that sounds heavy).
Why is the verb credi in the present indicative and not the subjunctive?
In Italian, real (“open”) conditions introduced by se use the indicative, because they describe a possible or likely event. Subjunctive appears in contrary-to-fact or hypothetical wishes (e.g. se tu credessi, “if you were to believe”), but here it’s simply “only if you believe,” so the present indicative credi is correct.
Why is solo se used instead of se solo?
Solo se is the fixed Italian order for “only if.” If you flipped it to se solo, it would sound like “if only…” (an expression of regret or wish, e.g. se solo potessi… “if only I could…”), which is different from the conditional meaning “only in the case that.”